Clean up your online act

Posted: 11/04/2012

The internet has brought about many changes in the way products are sold, but that doesn’t mean the e-commerce world is without its own rules. Commercial, IP and IT partner Joanne Vengadesan answers six FAQs for Travel Trade Gazette readers to help ensure the online side of their businesses is compliant:

What details must a travel business legally disclose on its website?

your company’s registered, name, number and address
your business name and geographic address
prices including all taxes
payment arrangements
cancellation rights
how long prices remain valid.

What other information must be included?

Details of any trade associations, professional bodies or authorisation schemes, such as Abta and Atol, to which you belong.

With what must I provide the customer when they purchase a holiday online?

your email address and VAT number
set out the steps involved in completing the sale contract, making it clear at which point the customer is committed to a contract
acknowledge receipt of orders electronically and promptly
make sure customers can store and reproduce your terms and conditions, by downloading onto their own computer and printing them off, for example
allow customers to easily check and correct errors before they complete the order
let the customer know which language options are available to allow them to complete an order.

Should we have a privacy policy?

A clear privacy policy is a useful method of ensuring compliance with data protection laws and should state what information is collected about clients, how it will be used and who will have access to it. Non-compliance with these laws can lead to criminal sanctions and fines, as well as negative publicity.

Is my website cookie-compliant?

It is likely that your website uses 'cookies', particularly if it allows a user to connect to their Twitter or Facebook account. Use of cookies, or digital files that store user-preferences, is now by law only allowed if the user has been given clear and comprehensive information about the purposes for which the cookie is stored and accessed and has consented. You need to therefore check:

which cookies you use
if your website provides users with information about these cookies
if the information on cookies is clearly highlighted and accessible to users
how your website obtains user consent. It is not enough simply to provide the information about these cookies in a privacy policy as there must be active consent granted by the user (through a pop-up box, for example)
if customers are told how to withdraw consent to cookies and the implications of withdrawing consent.

Can I claim the traveller reviews on my site are trustworthy?

Travel websites should not imply in their marketing that all reviews are from 'real travellers', 'honest travel reviews' or 'reviews you can trust' unless this can be independently substantiated. Any advertising and marketing communications used on your website are regulated by The British Code of Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (the Code).

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) recently held that TripAdvisor breached the Code by making such claims about its reviews, as references to honest, real or trusted traveller reviews were unsubstantiated and misleading. TripAdvisor argued that it required each reviewer to declare their review was honest. ASA’s view was that, although this helped to monitor suspicious activity, non-genuine reviews could still appear on the website undetected. The ASA ordered TripAdvisor to avoid marketing in the same form again and warned that it must not imply that all its reviews were from real travellers.

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